Having been a professional truck driver and trainer for more than 30 years, I find that you never, ever know it all. There are always new things to learn. My primary goal with this blog is to help other drivers (especially newer ones) with pertinent information and tips to enable them to work happier and more safely. Guest posts, contributors and feed-back are always welcome and wanted!

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Saturday, April 6, 2013

Life Lessons - Making a Left-Hand Turn While Talking on a Hands-Free Phone Is a Risky Combination

watchdog.org

"that could be the most dangerous thing they ever do on the road"

This article makes a very serious point that all drivers, especially teens, need to be aware of. Our daughter learned this lesson the hard way a few years ago while driving with her sister. Talking on a cell phone and making a left turn at an intersection can be deadly. Thankfully, she survived the accident, but not without a trip to the hospital, stitches to her face, a totaled out car and a terrifying experience for her sister! Article thanks to truckinginfo.com and a link to their site is provided below:

Most serious traffic accidents occur when drivers are making a left-hand turn at a busy intersection. When those drivers are also talking on a hands-free cell phone, "that could be the most dangerous thing they ever do on the road," said Dr. Tom Schweizer, a researcher at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

The hospital is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.

Researchers led by Schweizer tested healthy young drivers operating a novel driving simulator equipped with a steering wheel, brake pedal and accelerator inside a high-powered functional MRI. All previous studies on distracted driving have used just a joystick or trackball, or patients passively watching scenarios on a screen.

Immersing a driving simulator with a fully functional steering wheel and pedals in an MRI at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre allowed researchers to map in real time which parts of the brain were activated or deactivated as the simulator took them through increasingly difficult driving maneuvers.

The researchers were able to show for the first time that making a left-hand turn requires a huge amount of brain activation and involves far more areas of the brain than driving on a straight road or other maneuvers.

When the drivers were also involved in a conversation, the part of the brain that controls vision significantly reduced its activity while the part that controls monitoring a conversation and attention was activated.

"Visually, a left-hand turn is quite demanding," Schweizer said. "You have to look at oncoming traffic, pedestrians and lights, and coordinate all that. Add talking on a cell phone, and your visual area shuts down significantly, which obviously is key to performing the maneuver."

The simulation had the drivers making six left turns with oncoming traffic, which required them to decide when to turn safely. It then distracted them, by making them answer a series of true-false audio questions, such as "Does a triangle have four sides?"

The MRIs showed that blood moved from the visual cortex, which controls sight, to the prefrontal cortex, which controls decision-making.

"Brain activity shifted dramatically from the posterior, visual and spatial areas [of the brain] to the prefrontal cortex," said Schweizer, a neuroscientist and director of the Neuroscience Research Program at the hospital's Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.

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Having spent the last 36 years (23 as a trainer) driving tractor-trailer combinations and being involved with 3rd party logistics, I have gained valuable experience in such areas as safety, driver recruitment, hiring, DOT file set-up and maintenance, dispatching,on board computer training and have assisted at many start-up locations.

Having been both an employer and an employee, I can objectively see both sides of issues pertaining to management-employee relations. I maintain an excellent relationship with my supervisors, as well as drivers. Have owned and operated three successful businesses. Experienced in the fundamentals of bookkeeping, accounting principles and income tax preparation. Extensive, specific experience in the interview and hiring process of drivers, warehouse workers, driver helpers, and administrative assistants. Specialties include customer relations, driving, DOT regulations, hiring, leadership, logistics, training, transportation, dispatching, safety.

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